At BMR, our robot had a potentiometer that controlled the outer link of the arm's position... in classic titanic-style arrogance, we didn't put any limit switches on the robot. When the pot became uncoupled, he mighty 1000+:1 reduction provided by two FP motors mounted to two AM planetaries mounted to a Kitbot transmission mounted to a second Kitbot transmission THEN to a 2:1 chain reduction... subsequently bent the four pieces of 1x1 extruded aluminum that made up the frame to a 20 degree angle before somebody remembered the disable button.

2006:

Rear right drive sprocket cracked in the eliminations. We subsequently lost Buckeye.

But I guess we made good on it this year. The way I figure, we've won zero regionals my sophomore/junior years (my first two years) and we've won three this year. So, I figure that's one regional per year.

At BMR, our robot had a potentiometer that controlled the outer link of the arm's position... in classic titanic-style arrogance, we didn't put any limit switches on the robot. When the pot became uncoupled, he mighty 1000+:1 reduction provided by two FP motors mounted to two AM planetaries mounted to a Kitbot transmission mounted to a second Kitbot transmission THEN to a 2:1 chain reduction... subsequently bent the four pieces of 1x1 extruded aluminum that made up the frame to a 20 degree angle before somebody remembered the disable button.

We were talking about this very robot last night with our team. We were alliance partners in Atlanta (after you beat us at Boilermaker). The "llama" is one of my favorite of all time robots - I was very sad when it did that lemming thing and died I hope the great Chicago fire of 2008 is your only unfortunate incident of this year...

We were talking about this very robot last night with our team. We were alliance partners in Atlanta (after you beat us at Boilermaker). The "llama" is one of my favorite of all time robots - I was very sad when it did that lemming thing and died I hope the great Chicago fire of 2008 is your only unfortunate incident of this year...

Great Chicago Fire... love it... i think.

Well, don't feel too bad about the '05 bot. Our operator (taylor) this year and I resurrected it about a year ago... and added limit switchest this time. It was so easy!

...But... unfortunately, it was REALLY late when we finally got the arm all running again... and unfortunately a tetra we picked up got hooked on a rollie chair... taylor looked at me, I looked at him... we were both thinking... YEAH! Pick up the rollie chair!... and so i pushed the control stick forward...

And the motors ran... and ran... and ran... and suddenly my tired brain and his, at the same time, realized: If the chair isn't moving, and the motors are running... something's getting a lot of energy stored in it....

Shorly after that, the sprocket on the output shaft of the transmission resolutely said "No." and EXPLODED!!! leaving several large dents in the robot's monocoque skin... and more startlingly, a 1/4"x1/4"x1/2" chip out of a cinderblock wall about 15' behind the robot.

I didn't say that one at first because it wasn't an on-season thing... but everyone... there are lessons to be learned:

1) don't work on robots that late at night that have that high of a gear reduction in them
2) wear safety glasses
3) sprockets can explode
4) AndyMark gear reductions are probably NOT the thing in your drivetrain that's going to fail.

Well, thats it, and it's nice to know you all are thinking about us BombSquad, because we think about you too... well, that and your floppy accumulator...

At BMR, our robot had a potentiometer that controlled the outer link of the arm's position... in classic titanic-style arrogance, we didn't put any limit switches on the robot. When the pot became uncoupled, he mighty 1000+:1 reduction provided by two FP motors mounted to two AM planetaries mounted to a Kitbot transmission mounted to a second Kitbot transmission THEN to a 2:1 chain reduction... subsequently bent the four pieces of 1x1 extruded aluminum that made up the frame to a 20 degree angle before somebody remembered the disable button.

2006:

Rear right drive sprocket cracked in the eliminations. We subsequently lost Buckeye.

But I guess we made good on it this year. The way I figure, we've won zero regionals my sophomore/junior years (my first two years) and we've won three this year. So, I figure that's one regional per year.

-q

At the cost of a burned sensor this year...

I think the worst one any of my teams has had was when 330 (2004), not fell off the bar onto the floor (which it did), but ran the lift with the lock engaged the next match. Some cleanup needed to be made afterwards--lift channels bent, and I think a cable or two broke.

Semifinals of Washington FTC regional. Exothermic teams 575 and 417 are teamed with a third robot in the semifinals. 575 and 417 won easily in the first match. In the second match, 575 and the third 'bot lost a very close match. We now come up to the third and final match, with Plan B and Captain Hook once again paired up to take on the same robots as in match 1. The winner of this match goes to the finals.

Due to a field error, the teams wait until the last possible moment to turn on their computers, because some robots (especially our 418 for some reason) have had their computers time out before the end of a match. In the excitement, the drive team from 417 forgets to turn their robot on, and as the announcer says "begin" the teams turn on their remotes, starting their robots (remember that the field software is down, so all day the matches are started by the drivers). The coach for 417 looks down and sees no lights and then bends over an flips the "on" switch. The referees rule that touching the robot is a violation of the rule against touching a field object during a match and disqualify them. They are out. When the match is restarted, 575 has to play one-on-two and loses.

In an incredibly gracious discussion later, a mentor for one of the teams on the other alliance said that all three other drivers should have touched their robots -- causing the referees to face the possibility of DQing all four robots. Didn't happen, though, so the #1 alliance did not go into the finals. Bitterly disappointing, especially as it was our only regional: the Oregon regional gives preference to Oregon teams and wouldn't accept our registration, and we missed the Vancouver, BC, event due to mentor failure.

At BMR, our robot had a potentiometer that controlled the outer link of the arm's position... in classic titanic-style arrogance, we didn't put any limit switches on the robot. When the pot became uncoupled, he mighty 1000+:1 reduction provided by two FP motors mounted to two AM planetaries mounted to a Kitbot transmission mounted to a second Kitbot transmission THEN to a 2:1 chain reduction... subsequently bent the four pieces of 1x1 extruded aluminum that made up the frame to a 20 degree angle before somebody remembered the disable button.

2006:

Rear right drive sprocket cracked in the eliminations. We subsequently lost Buckeye.

But I guess we made good on it this year. The way I figure, we've won zero regionals my sophomore/junior years (my first two years) and we've won three this year. So, I figure that's one regional per year.

-q

I remember that. That was scary. (We were alliance partners at BMR, good job btw, haha).

As a 269 member, the worst thing that happened was in second to last match of qualifiers at Toronto last year, we blew out a speed controller. We thought it was a motor and spent our time swapping it out and our elevator ended up not working in our last match. Collectively, it is a large reason we didn't see the finals. Had I been a member this year, I would have considered their first missed match in who knows how long. Should be a fun team to watch in Archimedes though.

As a 171 member for this season only, I think the worst thing that happened was during practice, we had a motor rattle loose out of our toughbox and spin around wildly (the shaft didnt spin, the rest of the motor did, and tangle a bunch of wires. A little bit of loctite fixed the issue but it was a scary moment. If you look at the motor today, you'll notice the nice spiraling shape of its wires.

In 2007 we faced 1114 and 2056 twice in the finals at both Waterloo and GTR with team 854. In Waterloo we won the first match, but then at the end of the second match 1006 Fast Eddie lost a CIM i think, and got stuck in red's home zone which racked up 30 points in penalties. Because they were damaged the final match didn't go to well and we lost. Afterwards 1114's driver told our driver that we gave him the best defense he had seen, which really made us believe we had a chance.

Then in the GTR finals our team consisted of 854 (again) and 1241. Both robots did excellent but two bad things happened. In the second match 854 dropped their ramp (Loved your robot last year guys) and we drove up it but a ringer got caught on top and we couldn't drive forward enough for 1241 to drive up, so we lost. Then in the last match 2056 hit 854 hard and it damaged their ramp, so when they went to deploy it...well it just didn't deploy right away and time ran out.

At first i was very frustrated with the results of both regionals but hey we were still finalist and that was the year we finally won Chairmans at waterloo.

Palmetto Regional 2007, QF1-2. 1251/1626/1758 vs. 1618/1102/801. The former had stomped the latter in the first match to the tune of 264-0. (And, in the final qualification match, 1251/804/1436 had done the same thing to a lesser extent to 1618/1293/34 to the tune of 140-0.)

We just now made the brilliant realization that our opponents lacked a ramp on their alliance. We came up with a new plan: 1102 and 801 would get one tube each on the rack, then all three of us would give the fiercest defense we could supply. Throw in the ramp points, and we'd have to hope that they couldn't get a row of six.

Somehow, nobody on our team noticed that our tower, which contained our electronics, came loose in the back. (Come to think of it, we're still fighting that issue at demos.) The result can be seen in this video, ending where our main battery cable pulled out of the distribution block. We lost the second round 48-19, making me think we might've pulled it off if that wire had held. Unfortunate, but it led us to step our wiring game up for 2008.

2003 - Stack Attack - While in autonomous mode our robot goes up the ramp to knock the totes down. One tote falls on our robot corner first and happens to find the baseball sized opening in our polycarb for reaching the main breaker. The polycarb deflects just enough to allow the tote to trip the breaker and end our match prematurely.

2007 - Rack n' Roll - In the semifinals of the Galileo division one of our alliance partners is pushed into the rack causing them to de-score a ring. We still would have won despite the penalty but at the last second, after both alliance partners had been lifted by our robot one of the operators nudged the controls and rolled off our robot costing us 30 points, the match and a chance to advance to the finals.

Such is life in the fast-paced, laugh-in-the-face-of-adversity, never-let-them-see-you-sweat, sometimes-you're-the-windshield-sometimes-you're-the-bug world of FIRST Robotics!

__________________Every child. Every program. Everywhere.

Thanks Plexus Corp. for the 21-year partnership and counting...your company gets it!!

Championship semifinals on Einstein in 2003. Autonomous mode takes us up the ramp - and right up Wildstang's wedged sides! We flip over backwards. Usually that's not a big deal. Our arm could right the robot. But the force of the fall absolutely destroyed the sprocket in the arm, and we spent the rest of the match on our back.

We missed the next match, too, and Wildstang went on to win the Championship.

In one practice match at Western this year our robot first plowed into the wall and kinked the entire frame. We then preceded to slam our knock off bar into the little supporting bar at the corner of the overpass and bent the entire assembly.

Thankfully we had it all repaired by Friday.

Last year on Curie we had one oft he gears at the base of our arm simply snap when we got entangled in another robot. Luckily we had some delrin blocks that essentially locked the rotation in place so we had to turn the robot instead of just rotating the arm. We managed to still do alright without arm rotation.

In 2006 our robot went up the ramp, and then promptly was driven backwards off the ramp and tipped over backwards. We bent the frame, but thankfully it was part of the upper frame and was essentially cosmetic damage, though it looks nasty. It's still bent to this day.

we drove up it but a ringer got caught on top and we couldn't drive forward enough

We lost the championships last year for the same reason!!! well enough griping.

I also have countless things i have destroyed with autonomous. In our shop we have a metal railing that goes around our practice field that just fits the base of our robot and leaves all the electronics/ arms in the destruction zone. Well lets just say we turned the wrong direction last year and severed our gripper, thank goodness for PVC Arms.